Ava
The night bled slowly into morning, though it did not feel like dawn. The air was heavy with the scent of salt and iron. My skin still remembered the hum of the Veil, and every breath I took carried his heartbeat inside it.
The mark beneath my collarbone had not dimmed. It pulsed faintly, answering a rhythm that was not entirely mine.
I had not seen Casimir since the cliffs. He had left without a word after the sea went still again. But his absence was not absence at all. He lived in the pulse beneath my skin, in the way the air thickened when I thought his name. There was no silence anymore, only the quiet that came before something breaks.
Nicholas came to the shop at first light. He looked older than he had the night before, shadows carved deep beneath his eyes.
"The sickness has reached inland," he said. "The harbor is closed. Anyone who touched the water is showing signs."
"How many?" I asked.
"Too many," he said. "Casimir wants to burn the docks."
I froze. "He would kill the infected?"
Nicholas's expression softened, but his tone stayed cold. "He would save the rest. That is what kings do."
"He is not a king," I said quietly. "Not yet."
Nicholas studied me for a long moment. "No. But he will be. And when that day comes, it will not matter what you feel for him. It will destroy you both."
Before I could answer, the door opened. The room changed with his presence. Casimir filled the space as if he had always belonged there. His coat was still damp, his hair dark against the morning light.
The mark on his arm shimmered faintly through the sleeve of his shirt. He looked at me, not at Nicholas, and I felt the world narrow.
"We have no choice," he said, voice low but steady. "The docks are lost."
"There must be another way," I said. "You cannot fight death with more death."
He stepped closer. "You would have me do nothing while the Veil eats through my people?"
"This is not your kingdom," I said. "These are not your people."
Something flickered in his eyes... pain, or anger, or both. "Then whose are they? Yours? You cannot protect them any more than I can."
Nicholas moved between us, his voice sharp. "Enough. The Veil feeds on emotion. You are giving it what it wants."
The tension did not break. It deepened. I could feel it in the air, the invisible thread pulling tighter between us. The faint hum of the mark grew louder, echoing in my chest.
Casimir's gaze fell to the place where the glow showed through the fabric of my dress. He took another step forward, and I felt my pulse stumble.
Nicholas exhaled slowly, looking from one to the other of us. "Tell me the truth," he said quietly. "Is this what it is? Fate? Or something worse... something neither of you were meant to survive?"
Casimir did not answer. He did not need to. The silence between us was enough. Nicholas shook his head. "Then the Veil is not the only thing that will kill us."
He left, the door slamming softly behind him. The sound lingered, small and final.
Casimir's gaze returned to me. "You should not listen to him."
"Why? Because he speaks the truth?"
"Because he has never felt this."
He reached for me, and I did not move away. His hand brushed my jaw, his thumb tracing the edge of my cheek. The air trembled. The warmth of his touch burned through me, too much and not enough all at once.
"Every time I touch you," he said softly, "I lose myself a little more."
I met his eyes, my breath unsteady. "Then lose yourself."
The space between us vanished. His mouth found mine, slow at first, uncertain, as if he had been waiting a lifetime to remember how to breathe. The world fell away. The mark beneath my skin flared bright, flooding the room with faint silver light. His hands were in my hair, mine on his chest, and for that single heartbeat, nothing else existed.
Then the pain came.
It started in my chest, a sharp pulse that spread through my veins. Casimir broke the kiss, his eyes wide with shock. His arm glowed brighter, his veins burning silver beneath the skin. "The bond," he said, voice rough. "It reacts."
I staggered back, clutching my chest. The mark pulsed once, hard enough to steal my breath. Through it, I felt his heartbeat, his pain, his fear, all of it bleeding into mine.
He caught me before I fell, his hand over my heart. "Breathe," he said. "You have to breathe."
"I can feel you," I whispered. "All of you."
His breath shuddered. "Then you know how much I want you to live."
The words undid me. I leaned into him, my head against his chest. His heartbeat was loud, steady, real. For a moment, I forgot the world outside. There was only the warmth of his body, the rhythm we shared, the fragile silence that felt like belonging.
A knock broke it. Nicholas's voice came through the door, urgent. "Casimir. The King. It is happening again."
Casimir's hands tightened on my shoulders. I saw the war in his eyes, the pull of duty and the weight of me. "Stay here," he said. "Do not go near the sea."
"Cas.."
"Promise me."
I could not. But I nodded anyway.
He brushed his fingers along my cheek, his touch lingering. Then he turned and was gone.
---
Casimir
Leaving her warmth was one of the hardest things I'd have to do in a long time, May be ever. The world outside smelled of rain and decay. Nicholas moved quickly beside me, his jaw tight, his eyes set ahead. We reached the edge of town where the mist began again. The black veins that had crept through the harbor now threaded into the soil, glowing faintly beneath our boots.
"He worsened as the sea bled," Nicholas said. "His blood runs dark now. The healers are afraid to touch him."
"The Veil is using him," I said. "It is drawing from the bond."
"Then it draws from her too." Nicholas stopped, turning to me. "You cannot have her and save her at the same time."
I met his gaze. "Then I will burn the world trying."
He looked away first. "You sound like him."
"Elijah?"
He nodded. "He said the same before he fell."
The wind rose, carrying the scent of the sea. I felt her heartbeat through the mark, faint but steady. It was enough to keep me from breaking. The path ahead blurred in the fog, but I did not stop. I would not. The Veil wanted blood. It would have mine before hers.
Between her breath and my blood, the Veil had already chosen its sacrifice.